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MEMORIAL ^^ 



OF 



THE MISSISSIPPI CONVENTION, 



PKAYING 



AN EXTENSION 



TffE LIMITS OF TIMT STATE, 



December 17, 1817. 

Read, and referred to Mr. Poindexter, Mr. Speed, Mr. Robertson, of Loui- 
siana, Mr. Claiborne, and Mr, Cobb, 



Printed by order of the House of Representatives, 



WASHINGTON; 
PRINTED V.V E. DE KRAVFT 



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J CIS] 4 

^ MEMORIAL. 



2b the Honaurable the Senate and House of Representatives^ of tht 
United States of America^ in Congress assembled. 

The Memorial of the Convention, convened at the town of 
"Washington to form a constitution and state government for the peo- 
ple in the western part of the Mississippi territory, respecttuUy repre- 
sents to your honourable bodies, 

That having completed the constitution which they were chosea 
to form, for the government of the people authorized by the Congress 
of the United States, at their last session, to establish for themselves 
a separate and independent state, your memorialists deem it a duty 
incumbent on them, to attract the attention of your honourable bodies 
to a subject of great importance to the best interests of this portion 
of the union, and particularly to those whom they immediately re- 
present. 

By the first section of the act under which your memorialists 
are assembled, the boundary between this state and the Territory of 
Alabama, is designated to run from the junction of Bear creek with 
the Tennessee river, in a direct line to the north west corner of Wash- 
ington county, and thence due south to the Gulf of Mexico, so as to 
intersect the confluence of the river Pascagoula. Against this unequal 
and artificial boundary your memorialists beg leave, most respecttuUy, 
to remonstrate. 

Your memorialists deem it unnecessary to animadvert upon the 
circumstances under which the measure, of which they complain, was 
adopted; it will be sufficiently obvious on a view of the map, connect- 
ed with a knowledge of a few leading facts, in relation to this subject, 
that injustice has been done to this section of the country; and they 
cannot ior a moment doubt the readiness with which your honourable 
bodies will correct any error into which your predecessors may have 
fallen, without regard to the causes which led to it. Your memori- 
alists are encouraged in this expectation, by a reference to the exam- 
ple of Louisiana, and the favourable result of a similar application 
made to Congress by the convention who formed the constitution of 
that state. 

Your memorialists are aware of the difficulty which has from 
time to time been experienced by the national legislature in prescribe 
ing suitable geographical limits for the new states, which are growmg 
up in the vast and extensive territories of the United States — to avo d 
the inaccuracies incident to legislation without proper information, it 
has been usual on such occasions to consult the feelings and wishes 
of the local authorities, who are enabled by actual observation, to coi* 



4 [153 

rect the speculative opinions of those who are compelled to a^twith- 
oui these advantages. This reasonable course your memorialists well 
hoped would have been pursued in relation to the Territory of which 
the y are a part, by which means they would have received that justice 
which they now seek to obtain from your honourable bodies. 

It is worthy of remark that no petition or memorial from the 
territorial legislature, nor from the people, so far as your memorialists 
are informed, was ever forwarded to the general government, praying 
the establishment of the line by which the territory has been divided. 
So soon as the formation of two states, by a no^^th and south line 
through the centre of the Mississippi Territory was distinctly under- 
stood to have entered into the views of Congress, the attention of 
evtry one was directed to the natural boundary, as the most conve- 
nient and equitable partition between the eastern and western divisions 
of the Territory* 

JSTo suggestion to the contrary was ever sanctioned by the people 
or their representatives, in favour of such a divisional,Une, the opin- 
ions of both branches ot the national legislature have been expressed. 
As early as the year 1810 the Senate of the United States postponed 
the bill for the entire admission of this territory into the union as a 
state, for the purpose of obtaining the assent of the state of Georgia 
to the formation of one or more states in said territory; that assent 
havmg been obtained, the House of Representatives, after mature de- 
liberation passed a bill, providing for the ultimate establishment of 
the natural boundary, commencing at the bay of Mobile, and run- 
ning north to the southern boundary of the state of Tennessee. The 
same plan of division, was strongly enforced by the Senate, during 
the session of 1816; aad with a full knowledge of ail these facts, the 
local legislature, not only acquiesced in the policy recommended, but 
in one or more instances, a considerable proportion of that body, have 
given it their approbation by express representations of .the general 
government. 

The only point on which a diversity of sentiment existed, was, 
whether one or two states should be formed of the territory, and 
not as to the line proposed, in case the division should take place. In 
the absence then of any petition, memorial, or remonstrance having 
for its object the establishment of an artificial, instead of a resort to 
the natural boundary, combined with the antecedent indications given 
of the sense in which this subject was viewed by both Houses of Con- 
gress, it was not without a mixture of mortification and surprise, that 
your memorialists received the intelligence, that a new and unexplor- 
ed line of division had been adopted; inconsistent with a proper regard 
to equality, and incompatible with sound policy and the future welfare 
of this country. 

In support of these premises your memorialists beg leave to enu- 
merate some of the evils which wili result to this state by the est-a» 
Mishment of the artificial line, to which they have referred. 



[15] 5 

It gives to the Territory of Alabama, an advantage of three 
millions ivvo hundred thousand acres of land more than is contained 
within the limits of the State of Mississippi. It diprives the new- 
state ot a considerable population; vphich, on a lair division of the 
tenitury, would have fallen within its jurisdiction. It even divides 
some oi the eastern counties, so as to leave a part of the inhabitants 
on the Pascagoula unconnected with any county, and destitute of the 
securitv and benefits of either a territorial or state government.— 
It destroys the equality, in the partition among the south western 
States, of the sea-coast acquired by the purchase of Louisiana; 
thereby giving to the Territory of Alabama in the left, and to the 
State of Louisiana on the right, the whole extent of that sea coast, 
except a very small and unimportant portion between the Bay of Pas- 
cagoula and the mouth of Pearl Iliver. It destroys the form and 
beauty of this state, by changing the limits which nature had pre- 
scribed to it. It moreover leav^is this state destitute of a sea-port, 
whilst its two powerful neighbors, Alabama and Louisiana, will pos- 
sess almost the entire sea-board from the eastern to the western 
boundary of Louisiana, as acquired by the treaty of the 30th of April, 
1803, with the French emperor. Your memorialists forbear to go 
further into detail on this subject. Important as the foregoing consi* 
derations are, they would not ask of your honorable bodies an exten- 
sion of their boundary, if by that act injuctice would be done to the 
Territory of Alabama: no injury ought to be complained of by either 
party in consequence of a fair and equitable division of the actual terri- 
tory, so as to give to each a just proportion. And it is worthy ot re- 
mark, that by the fortune of the late war with the Creek Indians, and 
the ev. ins which have followed, the Indian title to a large portion of 
the lands in that part of the late Mississippi Territory is extinguished, 
and in a very short time these lands will be exposed to sale by the 
United States. Emigration will be attracted to that district, which 
will in a few years give them a population more than double that ot this 
state, within our limits as prescribed by the late act of Congress. — ■ 
The quantity of land to which the Indian title is extinguished is very 
small and it is to be feared that many years will elapse before the 
tribes of Choctaws and Chickasaws, who now occupy the country to 
its northern extremity, can be induced to dispose of it to the govern- 
ment. This circumstance alone will confine the growth and popula- 
tion of the state, until it shall be overcome by some exercise oi execu- 
tive authority which will lead to the extinguishment of the Indian 
over this tract of country. 

Your memorialists beg the attention of your honorable bodies to 
a view of the future prospects of the eastern part of this territory as 
conDected with its present condition. In the event of our acquiring 
from r^pain the remainder of the Floridas, which is confidently ex- 
pected at no distant day, the obvious policy of the government will be 
to extend the eastern line of the Alabama 'iVrriiory, along the course 
of the Cliatahouche, to the Bay of Apalachacola — this extension will 



fi ' [15] 

be the most suitable and convenient disposition which the general gb- 
verament could make of the country lying between the Perdido and 
the Chatahouche ; and the advantages which that territory would de- 
rive from the measure are of the highest interest. 

The command of the seaboard, from the bay of Apalachacola, to 
the bay of Pascagoula, a distance of more than two hundred miles, 
including, besides many other ports of mmor importance, the city of 
yensacuia, and the commercial depots at and near the bay of Mobile. 
Your memorialists have referred to this contingency, as on e 
which ought to have its due influence in the permanent regulations 
which are to be made at this time, because it may hereafter give an 
undue preponderance to that section of the territory over the wes- 
tern division. 

\>any other considerations might be urged to show the proprie- 
ty and reasonableness of granting the prayer of your memorialists, 
but they leave them to the inferences of which the subject is sus- 
ceptible, and to the wisdom and reflection of your honorable bodies. 
Nature has separated this state, on the west, from the state of 
Louisiana, by the great river Mississippi. Whv should it not be 
bounded, on the east, by the Mobile and the Tombigbee? Why should 
the order of nature be destroyed, and artificial boundaries preferred^ 
less convenient, and productive of manifest injustice, both as to ter- 
ritorial limits, and a just distribution of the seacoast, which ought 
not to be monopolized by one state, to the exclusion of another, hav- 
ing equal claims, on the score of proximity to the ocean. 

The arrangement contemplated by your memorialists, corres- 
ponds with the natural partition of the country. Georgia will be di- 
vided from the Alabama territory, by the river Chatahouche, and the 
Mobile affords to it a western boundary of equal dignity and con- 
venience. 

Your memorialists, in proceeding to form, for their constitu- 
ents, a constitution, and assuming the rank of an independent state 
of thr Lnion, were actuated by a full conviction, that your honora- 
ble bodies would consider their claim to an enlargement of bounda- 
ry without prejudice, having the same constitutional power over the 
subject which existed at any former period. 

Relying, therefore, that the same enlarged, liberal policy will be 
pursued, which has so uniformly characterised the proceedings of the 
national legislature, in relation to its territories, your memorialists 
advance, with becoming satisfaction, to the station assigned to them, 
as a member of the great American family; and with submission to 
the wisdom, moderation, and impartiality, of a tribunal so enlight* 
ened, your memorialists pray that the eastern boundary of this state 
may be extended to the bay of Mobile, and thence along the middle 
of the I'ombigbee river, according to the meanders thereof, to the 
Cotton Gin Port, and thence due north, to the southern boundary 
line of the stale ofl'ennessee. 

And your menjorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray. 



[15] 7 

David Holmes, president of the convention, and 

delegate from the county of Adams. 
Josiah Simpson, 
E. Turner, 
Joseph Sessions, 
J. Taylor, 
John Steele, 
Christopher Rankin, 
James Wilkms. 

From Jefferson county, 

Cowles Mead, 
J E Davis, 
H. I Balch. 

From the county of Claiborne. 

Walter Leake, 
Thomas Barnes, 
Daniel Burnet, 
J. G. Clarke. 

From Warren county, 

H. D Davis, 
A Glass. 

From Franklin county. 

James Knox. 

From Wilkinson county, 

George Poindexter, 
Daniel Williams, 
A JVl Scott, 
John Joor, 
G C Brandon, 
Joseph Johnson, 

From the county of Amite. 

John Burton, 
Thomas Batchelor, 
H nry Hanna, 
A:»pus Wilkinson, 
Thomas Torrance.. 



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i r^ [153 

Form Pike county. 

W. J. Minton, 
James Y. M^Noble^ 
David Dickson. 

From Laurence county. 

Harmon Runnels, 
George W. King. 

From Marion county. 

Dougal McLaughlins 
John Ford* 

From Hancock county. 

Noil Jourdan, 
A. Burnet. 

From Jackson county, 

John M'Leod, 
Thomas Bilbo. 

From Wayne county. 

James Pattor^ 
Clinch Gray. 

From Green county. 

L. IM^Kay, 
John JVPKae. 



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